The world will experience a deficit in leadership and specific steps need to be taken to navigate a new terrain of global geopolitics as evidenced by a spate of developments that deliver wide-reaching consequences, experts say.

From the once-improbable Brexit vote in the United Kingdom referendum to the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, global geopolitics has been exceptionally unpredictable in 2016.

“For the millennials, I want to welcome you to what is bound to be in the short term a leaderless world,” former Indonesian ambassador to the US, Dino Patti Djalal, said during a public discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Dino, a US-educated scholar of international relations, said he believes the world still needs the leadership of the US, but that it would be difficult for president-elect Trump to exercise that leadership in an effective way.

“We will have the American president sworn in on Jan. 20, Mr. Trump, but he will start his term with the lowest diplomatic and political capital ever had by any American president in recent memory,” he said.

Meanwhile, other global powers such as China, Russia, the European Union and even emerging powers like ASEAN will arguably find it difficult to fill the shoes of the traditional superpower.

“You look across the board, you see a world that is restless and more volatile and insecure, and not the US, not Europe, not Russia, China, ASEAN nor Japan will play an effective leadership role,” Dino said.

After Brexit and Trump, there is evidence that more restless populism is on the rise in many parts of the world.

“The world we live in today is getting increasingly affected by ethnic identity and religious issues,” the former deputy foreign minister added.

In a globalized world mired by such sensitive issues, aided by the double-edged sword of social media and the blurring of lines between local and global issues, there is a need to look for a comprehensive solution and qualities of leadership, former foreign minister Marty Natalegawa argued.

Marty suggests that the world’s leaders need to see change as a constant and develop regional architectures that are fluid and adaptive to ever-shifting paradigms.

“We have begun to lose the plot, and leaders assume the worst [in others] and we become entrapped in a worst-case assumption in which we need to protect ourselves,” he said.

One of the powers most affected by recent developments and expected to step up to the challenges facing the word today is the EU.

“Europe has a game plan, and it is to be more confident and responsive,” EU Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guerend said during the panel discussion on Tuesday.

According to the EU Global Strategy, which sets out the EU’s core principles for engaging in the wider world, there are three main objectives of the EU: keeping citizens safe, preserving EU interests and upholding EU values.

With regard to Asia, Indonesia in particular, the EU looks to build strong ties in connectivity and security.

“In light of the economic weight that Asia represents for the EU and vice versa, peace and stability in Asia are a prerequisite for EU prosperity,” Guerend said in his presentation.

He said the EU was particularly looking forward to cooperating with Indonesia in the fight against terrorism.

Indonesia and the EU recently hosted its first joint committee meeting under the banner of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), an umbrella framework for various kinds of joint endeavors.

Dino suggested that one possible area of cooperation under the PCA is a political one on the promotion of pluralist values.

“Europe has a problem with that but they have resources as well, and that’s a big issue for us as well. So if we can both synergize to promote multiculturalism and interfaith, it is going to be quite impactful,” he said.

Meanwhile, Marty urged both the EU and its Asian partners to bring relations into parity, one with updated mechanisms to grasp low-lying fruits and quick wins.

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